How 3x11 Should Have Ended
by saxicolous
Summary: Emma is visited by a very mysterious, and very full of leather stranger that kisses her. She becomes paranoid that the man is still after her. She's right. One-Shot


Among the many attempts Emma had in trying to forget about the stranger-slash-mouth rapist the memory kept nagging her. She could have sworn she saw him before perhaps in the busy streets of New York, or in her favorite café. Chills ran down her back in worry that the man might be watching her and her son. But the thing that really disturbed her was that the stranger had a hook for a hand. For days Emma scoured the internet searching for any stories of a man in complete leather, with a hook for a hand and a little too much eyeliner. After being redirected to many fetish porn sites –_thanks Google—_she gave up pursing her lips and shaking her head.

_Just another crazy homeless man in New York, what else is new?_ She laughed to herself.

"What's so funny?" Henry asked peeking his head above the novel he was reading. Emma, due to the nature of many of the websites that popped up, had angled her laptop and body away from Henry.

"Oh nothing, Sweetheart," Emma said biting her lip. Emma had a very hard time lying to her son. Even a white lie she had trouble with. She couldn't keep track of what lie she told about his father. She always said he died a noble way as a firefighter or a police officer (she always mixed up the two). The only trouble is Emma couldn't remember who Henry's father was either she found it deeply unsettling. She couldn't even conjure an image of his face, or even his name. Sometimes she couldn't remember Henry—well she _could_—but not as a toddler, or as a first grader for God's sake she couldn't even remember his first word. All these insecurities about being a mother built a wall around her and she constantly feared she was building a wedge between her and her son.

She stood abruptly, "Uh, Henry," she spoke trying to conceal the emotion from her voice, "I think I'm gonna call it a night."

"But mom it's only six thirty," Henry said confusion painting his face.

"Oops! I misspoke I'm gonna get some dinner. How does Thai sound?" Emma fidgeted she desperately needed to get house for some fresh air.

"Okay mom, seeya," Henry called from the living room stretching to see his mom fumble with the keys and walk out the door.

After a few attempts at locking the apartment door behind her and scurrying past Sleazy Steve, her very 'friendly' neighbor, Emma made it out of the apartment complex. She breathed in the air—and gagged—it wasn't as fresh as she had hoped. The Thai restaurant was only a few blocks away, but as Emma walked she only felt smaller and smaller. Conflicting thoughts battled in her head and soon she found herself walking on sandy pavement. _That can't be right, _Emma thought to herself as she looked up to see waves crash into a sandy shore. Emma jumped back knocking into a strong figure behind her. When she felt leather she screamed.

Emma turned around facing the perpetrator. "What the hell?!"

The leather-clad-one-handed-psycho-serial-killer only smiled. He put his hands up in defensive way that irritated Emma.

From afar Emma looked somewhat of a comic book hero with her knees slightly bent in a poised position, and where a weapon should be, Emma figured her fists would suffice. "What the actual _fuck_ is going on?!"

"Okay, okay, okay," the one handed man said. Emma figured she would call him hand-y or hook-y at least until she learned his name. "I realize that kissing you may have seemed a bit primitive and unfair on your side, and you must realize that I did at first consider meeting you in civilized setting and courting you like a gentleman and easing you back into your memory but you see time is really of the essence here and—"

"Where the hell do you get off?! Are you fucking crazy?!" Emma shouted. She soon thought of the implications of asking an actual crazy person if he was in fact crazy. Emma tackled the man—Handy—and made a makeshift handcuffs out of his superfluous leather jacket. She was quite proud of herself until she realized he wasn't even fighting back. She stopped herself from saying 'that's no fun' out loud.

"Y'know I always imagined you putting me in handcuffs but never in this kind of situation," Hand-y smiled his smug smile and Emma wacked him on the back of his head. She smiled smugly when 'oof' left his mouth. "But in all seriousness, Emma, I know you must be thinking I'm a murderer-"

"Funny. That's exactly what I was thinking," Emma tightened her grip on Handy

"Ah… Ow! Alright, alright you once told me that you could tell if someone was lying to you," Handy said rapidly, the words spilling out of his mouth like liquor. "Now I can promise if you look into my satchel and find a chain with a charm you'll understand everything I'm telling you."

Emma's face contorted in confusion. Deep down she knew the man wasn't lying but it was a primal instinct that told her not to trust him. That trusting this man would lead to her downfall.

"Trust me you know you can," he murmured. His eyes were now closed and the moonlight shined on his face that made him look younger and more vulnerable like a child from another world. She reached her arm around him into him satchel and felt around until a cool chain slipped into her fingers, and she remembered.

At first it was like a sharp slap of information was physically being pushed into her mind but then as more memories flooded in some dulled and others sharpened. It was painful for Emma to remember it was like watching a melodrama of her own life she could see the mistakes she made and wish she could yell at the girl to get it right. Emma laid gasping in the sand sometimes even rolling over if the memories were too painful. It was agony to be teetering from happy moments to sad moments even moments of despair. But Emma endured as she always did and when she came out of it she was laughing as well as crying. She guessed the sad memories didn't cancel the happy memories that they were both equal in weight.

Emma finally looked up to see Hook staring at her either in a bemused or a sympathetic way. She couldn't tell because the clouds covered the only light source in the sky. She looked at the chain, "this is Neal's?"

"Technically it was yours," Hook paused," I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it," Hook flashed a smile and quickly turned around. Emma sworn she saw a little hurt in his eyes. She wanted to say that just because Neal's charm gave her memories back it didn't really mean anything about how she felt. She gave it back to Neal for a reason. But the words got lost on her tongue and all she wanted to do was to find Henry.

"W-we need to get Henry, and tell him," she blurted out.

"Ah- I'm one step ahead of you, Love," Emma's brows furrowed as Hook continued, "Well, I knew it would be a bit more difficult to convince you than it would be for Henry… and well I guess you can do the math from there."

"So you're telling me that Henry knew the entire time?" Emma asked carefully.

Hook shrugged.

"So he knew about everything when you came to my door and-and—"Emma started.

Hook smiled his same smug smile. Emma didn't feel like getting angry so she half-heartedly rolled her eyes.

"So let me guess he's on the ship," Emma pointed towards the obvious pirate ship in Hudson bay.

"Did you see that the whole time?" Hook asked bemused.

"Yes, and I've mentally been calling you 'Handy'," Emma smiled and raised an eyebrow at Hook's confusion.

"I don't understand," Hook said looking at his good hand.

Emma only chuckled.


End file.
